


Ivory & Wire & Pearls

by cheinsaw



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: F/F, Transformation, Were-Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 10:56:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3172022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheinsaw/pseuds/cheinsaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keine's spent most of her life avoiding telling people where she goes during every full moon, but it's hard to keep secrets from someone like Mokou.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ivory & Wire & Pearls

**Author's Note:**

> this can be read as platonic or romantic depending on how you feel about them. i honestly don't know if i like kenemoko better as queerplatonic partners or as datefriends...

"How come I never see you on the full moon?"

Mokou's asked at least four times now, but Keine can never give her an answer. She's hidden it for so long that it shouldn't make her as worried as it does. But Mokou's caught on, and Keine is terrified out of her wits that it won't be long before she works out the truth. That Keine becomes something horrible, something inhuman on full moons.

Keine hates it. She always has, from the first time she transformed and her parents nearly disowned her. She hates what it does to her, how she has to miss a day of school every month because it's impossible for her body to handle teaching the day after her hakutaku form drains all her energy. She hates the process itself, the splitting pain of her horns growing in too quickly and the suddenness of having a tail, and the nausea that comes when the moon sets just before she phases back. She hates the painful ways her whole body, inside and out, shifts to accommodate being... nonhuman, and then to human again. Every month. Every full moon. She can't stand it.

So she stays alone, locked inside her house on those nights. She usually curls up on her bed in a nightgown, occasionally getting up to pace around the cottage. Most of the time, she just lies there thinking. She can see everything. All of Gensokyo's history is laid out before her eyes, from its creation until the present moment. It's sometimes too much for her to take in, so she just lies as calmly as she can, tail twitching back and forth as she experiences a thousand histories all at once. Then when the dawn comes, she's finally able to sleep, exhausted after her second painful transformation within twelve hours. This is the way she's lived out twelve nights of every year for the majority of her life, and, despite a few nosy questions about her post-full moon absences in school, it's worked out.

Until now, apparently. She had been enjoying Mokou's company so much that she nearly forgot what night it was and had to rush out when she remembered, calling out apologies over her shoulder as she hurried home. And she feels awful, leaving Mokou like that, but she barely made it in time as it was, her tail snapping out from her lower back as she stumbled through her doorway.

What she didn't count on was Mokou following.

* * *

 

"Keine? Hey, Keine!" The sound of her partner's voice makes Keine freeze up. Her horns crack through her skull painfully, making her gasp, and she falls to her bedroom floor clutching her head. "Keine?" Mokou calls again, and Keine wishes she could just teleport or freeze time or _anything_ , anything to get away right now.

"Keine?" Mokou asks quietly from the doorway. Keine can't answer, staring at one fixed spot on her bed. "You're a hakutaku...?"

Keine nods, biting her lip and with her eyes still cast down. She can't lose Mokou. She should have been much, much more careful, should have stopped Mokou from seeing her like this. But it's too late, and now... Now Mokou will hate her the way everyone else did.

"So this is what you were hiding. Huh." Mokou brushes her hair behind her ear. "I thought you were seeing another girl or something."

"No," Keine says sadly. Her hakutaku senses are overwhelming her. She can smell Mokou, smoky and earthy and so very comforting, even from several feet away. And Mokou's history, a different scent altogether, rich and delicious and filled with blood and fire. All of it only makes her heart ache more. "I'm – sorry you had to see me like this."

Mokou crosses the room and sits down on the bed next to her, but doesn't try to touch her. "It doesn't make a difference to me. You're still you."

"But... But I'm... This is–I'm a t-terrible–"

"Hey. Hey, shush. Keine. Listen to me. I don't think it's bad at all. I mean... you look pretty cute like that."

Keine looks up, an anxious feeling spreading through her chest. "You... don't think this is..." Her head is reeling with confusion and from being so close to Mokou. And that's exactly the source of the confusion itself: that Mokou is so close to her, even when she's like this.

"No," Mokou assures her. "I promise. Here." She draws one leg up and tears a strip of cloth off her already-fraying pants, and leans to tie it around Keine's right horn in a bow.

Keine's eyes are wide. Mokou's smiling so warmly, and being so gentle with her, even when everyone else has called her a monster, even though she herself thinks she is–

She falls forward against Mokou, being careful not to scratch or scrape or bruise with her horns even as she buries her face against Mokou's calves. And then Mokou's arms are around her, strong and safe, hoisting Keine up into her lap, and Keine whines.

"Oh, no. Hey, no, Keine... 's okay. Don't cry." She pulls Keine as close as she can and starts to stroke Keine's hair. Almost instantly, Keine physically, even if not emotionally, relaxes, going limp in Mokou's arms and cuddling closer. She feels a purr rise in her throat, and tries to force it down. Mokou doesn't know how far her nonhumanity extends, and she wants to keep it that way. But Mokou's touches are so soothing, and Keine just feels so warm and safe that she can't contain it anymore.

"Are you purring?" Mokou exclaims, incredulous.

Keine tenses, and the rumbling in her throat stops. "Yes," she says quietly. "It's... hard to control if I... feel happy."

"That is _adorable_ ," Mokou gushes, and it slowly dawns on Keine that she's never heard Mokou sound so happy before. "Holy shit! You can purr. Oh, wow." She resumes petting Keine's hair, working her fingers through and scratching softly behind the horns. A surge of happiness fills Keine. This time she doesn't bother holding back, purring fiercely as she tilts her head up and kisses all over Mokou's face. Mokou laughs, clear and warm, as Keine nuzzles her neck.

The night is still young, but Keine nervously has to admit that she can't handle much except staying at home on the nights when she transforms. "Oh, that's fine," Mokou says, smiling, and happily lies down by Keine's side. She seems content simply holding Keine in her arms, and Keine can't remember a time when she felt more at peace as a hakutaku. They're both quiet for a long while, save for Keine's quiet purrs, until Mokou starts yawning.

"Long day?" Keine asks, smiling.

"Oh, sure." She stretches, resting her head against Keine's shoulder. "I could just fall asleep right here."

That's going to be a problem. "I can't sleep like this..." Keine confesses.

"I'll stay up with you." Mokou props herself into a half-sitting position. "I was just joking. I woke up at two in the afternoon."

"Aren't you standing Kaguya up?" Keine tries. She'd like Mokou's presence, more than anything, but she's sure that Mokou has something else to do, some prior commitment, some way she usually spends her full moons.

"She can go fuck herself," Mokou says dismissively. "She usually just sends assassins to my house these days. It's not really worth it, 'cause I don't want to kill them. Takes a really long time to get them all incapacitated, but it's not impossible. Kaguya underestimates me. I'd rather fight _her_."

"O-oh," Keine says. She's never sure what to make of their rivalry. She knows how it started, but it seems pointless to have continued for so long. Keine supposes there's something more that neither of them will admit, but it isn't a conversation she wants to have with Mokou anyway. Who she fights to the death is her business.

"Yeah. It's whatever. Can I ask you something? Well, not really ask, but…"

"Oh, yes, go right ahead," Keine says, slipping back into her schoolteacher voice, the one she uses with curious children.

"Uh… I've never met a hakutaku before, even though, y'know, I'm a thousand years old. I bet you can do all kinds of neat shit like that."

Keine closes her eyes. "I can see all of Gensokyo's history. And when I'm human I can make it look like history never happened, but like this, I can create it."

"Can you see mine?" Mokou presses.

"Yes."

"Ugh," Mokou groans. "Sorry."

"I've never judged you for any of it," Keine says. And it's true: Mokou's past, the man she killed to gain the Hourai Elixir, the two centuries she spent destroying everything in sight, the years and years and years of brutally murdering Kaguya – none of it matters to Keine. It's just a part of the Mokou she loves.

"Still, it's like, I dunno. I've grown up a lot, I think. I can barely remember some of the stuff that happened. I'm so old."

Keine looks back at Mokou, studying her face. "That's my purpose as a youkai. To remember it for you."

Mokou smiles a little, reaches out to touch Keine's cheek. "That's so like you. Looking out for other people. Isn't that what you always do? It makes sense."

"I don't know if I…"

"Keine, yeah, yeah, you do. You're the best teacher that village has ever had. I've seen them all and none of 'em were ever as good as you. And how you frickin'… protect the village when you know something's up. Not many other people would do that."

"It's just what I should do…" Keine insists, but Mokou just shakes her head again.

"Humans are insensitive assholes. Most of them will only want to protect themselves. Maybe their families, too, but not strangers or anything like that. But you – it's like the whole village is your family."

Keine's face heats up. "I don't know. It's hard... I want to protect the village from youkai, but I can only really do it in my human form. I'm no good like this, and if the village sees me like this I..." Flashes of memories come back to her, too fast and too intrusive, about the way her family treated her when they found out about her transformations. "They'll kick me out. They'll know I'm not human enough for the village. They'll—"

"Hey, Keine. Keine. It's okay. Everybody in the village loves you. If they can't deal with this, then... I dunno. I doubt anybody would see you differently just cause you're half animal sometimes." Mokou scratches the back of her neck. "Besides, if any youkai saw you like that around the village they'd probably go running in the other direction."

"Am I that scary?" Keine asks wryly.

"No, no, oh my god, just..." Mokou makes a frustrated noise and buries her face in her hands. "Threatening. You could look threatening if you tried like that."

"Is it the horns?"

Mokou tilts her head slightly. "I think so." She pauses. "And, you know. Even if anybody in the village doesn't accept you, I will. I always will."

Keine makes a soft, sad noise. "Yeah."

"I'll fight anybody who tries to go against you."

"Yeah…"

"I'm serious! I will."

Keine smiles a little. "I know. …Thank you,Mokou."

Mokou grins and kisses Keine's forehead, then the tip of her nose. "No problem."

They lie together until the dawn breaks, and Mokou drifts off to sleep, starting to snore lightly. Keine smiles down at Mokou's sleeping face. She's always been so beautiful, so precious to Keine. And now – she is even more so.

Keine's back starts to ache shortly after sunrise, and her head begins to pound harder. She slips out of bed and pads over to the kitchen, her tail dragging along the floor. She doesn't want to wake Mokou, nor worry her. Her head feels like it's going to split, and then – the horns are gone, shifting back into her skull. The makeshift ribbon Mokou gave her falls off onto the floor, still tied in a loop. Keine stares unfalteringly at its bright redness as her tail curls in, snapping into the bones of her lower back. Pain. A moment of agony. And then, her cheek pressed against the cool floor, her body exhausted and weak.

Keine limply drags herself back to the bedroom and flops down into the bed, right next to where Mokou lies.

"You okay?" Mokou mumbles.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine. I didn't know you were awake…"

"Nah, it's fine, 's long as you're not hurt." Mokou yawns, shifts, slings an arm protectively around Keine. "You need to sleep."

"Mhmm." Keine's already drifting off, her head tucked against Mokou's warm chest. "Thank you," she murmurs, her eyes closing heavy and dark.

Mokou says nothing, just squeezes Keine a little tighter. Keine understands. Some things, Mokou's never found words for. Maybe she doesn't need to. Some things are best said without words.

As the sun rises over Gensokyo, two almost-humans sleep, warmly curled into each other.  When Keine rises she'll lament missing school, and Mokou will grumble that she's hungry and needs a cigarette. But for now, they'll rest in each other's arms, the safest place in the world. And that's enough.


End file.
